English

Solar-like oscillations in alpha Centauri B

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

We have made velocity observations of the star alpha Cen B from two sites, allowing us to identify 37 oscillation modes with l=0-3. Fitting to these modes gives the large and small frequency separations as a function of frequency. The mode lifetime, as measured from the scatter of the oscillation frequencies about a smooth trend, is similar to that in the Sun. Limited observations of the star delta Pav show oscillations centred at 2.3 mHz with peak amplitudes close to solar. We introduce a new method of measuring oscillation amplitudes from heavily-smoothed power density spectra, from which we estimated amplitudes for alpha Cen A and B, beta Hyi, delta Pav and the Sun. We point out that the oscillation amplitudes may depend on which spectral lines are used for the velocity measurements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0508609,
  title  = {Solar-like oscillations in alpha Centauri B},
  author = {Hans Kjeldsen and Timothy R. Bedding and R. Paul Butler and Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard and Laszlo L. Kiss and Chris McCarthy and Geoffrey W. Marcy and Christopher G. Tinney and Jason T. Wright},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0508609},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in ApJ